There Is . . . No Spoon

Seeing Clearly

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The Yoga Sutras is a book written by an ancient yoga scholar, Patanjali, around 200 AD and outlines much of the philosophy yoga.

A major principle in the Yoga Sutras is the principle of Avidya, or misapprehension. In Sanskrit, the word Vidya means to see clearly. Avidya is the opposite of clear seeing.

Unfortunately our human experience is rife with Avidya, this unclear seeing. I believe that one of our major lessons in this earthly existence is to learn to recognize our Avidya and enlighten ourselves by simply learning to see clearly and by so doing expand our sense of Self.  

Seeing Clearly Precedes Good Judgement

Seeing clearly precedes good judgment. The world exists. Things just are. We all translate what is and color it with judgment: good, bad, right, wrong. Often, our judgment of the world, our misapprehension, prevents us from seeing what is true and makes us see only what we believe about what we see.

An old story goes like this: Once, a man was walking through the jungle at night and was very afraid of being eaten by a tiger. He heard something coming toward him and knew that it was a tiger so he pulled out his knife. When the animal stepped out onto the path in front of him, he immediately stabbed it and it fell dead. Only after he killed it did he realize that he had killed his best friend. His Avidya prevented him from seeing what truly was and caused death and suffering.   

With the practice of yoga we can learn to place a little space between events and judgment. With this space between action and reaction, we reduce our Avidya by practicing seeing things as they are and not how we judge them. The principle of reducing our Avidya is not about being emotionless and dispassionate, but rather learning to stop our judgment for just a moment and attempt to see things as they are before making a mindful next step. 

A Simple Meditation Technique

A simple but effective way of practicing Vidya, clear seeing, is by doing a simple form of meditation which I learned from one of my teachers, Donna Farhi, which I call the “There Is Practice.” You can do this anywhere and while doing anything but one way to do it is by simply sitting comfortably with a cushion on the floor (a chair or couch works nice, too).

Close your eyes, and acknowledge all the things you are currently experiencing with the phrase “There Is” in your mind.  "There is the sound of traffic. There is apprehension. There is a 20-pound cat sitting in my lap and licking my big toe." Anything you sense, feel, think, do, point to it with the phrase, "There Is . . . ."

Try to erase the personal pronouns I, me, or my from what you perceive. Erasing personal pronouns for a stint tends to change our understanding of what is as something that is more than what is only in relationship to ourselves.

Though simple in application, this practice is profound in its understanding. It’s profound because this practice helps us expand our identity from identifying with the smaller self as related to the experiences we have, i.e. “I hear the sound of the clock,” to a larger Self that includes everything, i.e., “I am the sound of the clock.” The “There Is Practice” is about seeing things just how they are without our own personal judgment getting in the way. It allows permission for the world to be the way it is and not just the way my smaller self thinks it should be. I like to set a timer and practice until the timer rings. Start with 10 minutes and increase the time as you like.

I invite you to practice Vidya this week by coming to yoga and also practicing the “There Is Practice.” With more accurate perception, we will be less reactive and more mindful in our decisions. We will find an expansiveness of being. With practices like yoga and the “There Is Practice” we reduce our Avidya and begin to see the world and what really is.

Affogato: The Dessert of the Year

Personally, it’s been one helluva year! This is the year I discovered the affogato. For those who have not heard of this perfect Italian dessert, let me explain. An affogato is espresso—aromatic, rich, and earthy—in a cup large enough to accompany a dollop of delicious, sweet, and creamy gelato. Buenísimo!  That’s affogato. I love affogato because it celebrates the bitter and the sweet, the hot and the cold, in a way that is balanced and deliciously satisfying.

My biggest affogato moment in my life happened this this year when I closed two yoga studios exactly one week before I married the love of my life. Ever noticed how kick-ass and ass-kicking have two totally different meanings? That’s affogato. While I was going through this roller coaster of events in my life, I could almost hear a voice from above saying, “Please keep your arms and legs in the ride at all times.” One afternoon, earlier this year when I was driving home from teaching, I was heavy hearted, worried, and stressed about the business. I looked up into the sky and swear I saw a cloud that looked exactly like God’s hand was offering me a fist-bump. Serious! It was a message like, “Bro! I know, wild ride. But don’t worry, I ga-chew.” And you know what? Despite the bitter worry and heart-break of closing my studios, I’m doing better than ever, moving forward in my career with a sweet stride, and thriving in a way that I could never have imagined. And what’s more important than business is that I’m completely thrilled to be exploring this amazing new marriage with a truly incredible woman. I’m setting off on this adventure expecting both the kick-ass and the ass-kicking moments, the sublime and the struggle. It’s with the woman I adore, the woman with whom I expect to spend the rest of my many years, right up until the day we decide to roll our motorized wheelchairs into an active volcano together. Now THAT’S affogato!

Holding two extremes together has really been my overall lesson this year. Moments like when my truck got stolen along with my Chubby Hula Dancer adhered to the dash and tons of people came together to help me out and offer me their support. Now, my truck and Chubby Hula Dancer are celebrities. Kind people I don’t even know stop me in the store and tell me that they are happy that I got my truck back. The struggle of getting my truck stolen and finally returned reminded me not about how selfish people can be that they would steal my ride, but how good, generous, and loving people are in the face of a personal fiasco.

Another affogato moment this year was fulfilling the dream I’d had for several years to host one of my most influential teachers, Dr. Richard Miller, for a weekend of incredible practices and teachings about yoga nidra. Practices like yoga nidra teach me that life is neither all bitter nor all sweet but something bigger than both. More poignantly, yoga nidra teaches me that my true identity is both the bitter and the sweet and therefore fundamentally large enough to hold either and both when they come. After Richard Miller’s final session, I stuck around the studio to conduct a meeting so I could inform all the studio’s teachers and staff that we were going out of business. Later that evening, I was attending a special good-bye dinner with Richard. He asked me why I had gathered all my teachers after his last session. I told him that I’d just announced to all my teachers and staff that we were closing the studio. He paused for a moment as a big smile spread across his face. He leaned into me and said, almost in a whisper, “congratulations!”  He understood that my struggle of closing the studio was inconsequential compared to an exciting new journey of personal growth and expansion without it. It reminds me of Matsuo Basho who said, “The moon is brighter since the barn burned.” Yoga and mindfulness has taught me that the beauty of life comprises the largeness of the entire experience, good and bad. Just enjoying the sweet isn’t large enough. Ananda means beyond joy. It means seeing the whole mind-blowing experience as complete and perfect. Balanced.

Warrior II poses helps remind me of the affogato nature of life. To me, Warrior II represents the warrior pulling back the bow string and focusing forward at what you want, where you’re going, and how you’re getting there. Hitting your target is a matter of balancing opposites. A master archer will unify their mind with the target. To find the still-point to release their arrow, they must ride the dance of the breath so as to release the arrow in that fleeting moment of stillness after the exhale. If the archer is too rigid, they’ll shake and won’t have a clear vision of the target. If the archer is too loose they’ll not have the stability to keep the bow steady. The balance is found somewhere between effort and ease. Affogato!

As you’re summing up 2014 and preparing for 2015, remember that just like in Warrior II, you must keep your focus on what you want, where you’re going, and how you’re getting there. Find the rhythm of your breath and balance effort and ease and you’ve got the winning chemistry that is ensure that you hit your mark. Remember that life is the beautiful balance of opposites.

What were your affogato moments this year? How do you think appreciating this truth can help you prepare for the next year? Please add your voice by leaving a comment below.

And if ever life feels like an official ass-kicker, try a kick-ass affogato at my favorite family-owned Italian restaurant, Cannella’s, at 204 East 500 South in Salt Lake City. Their veggie lasagna is also out of this world.

So I raise this affogato cup to you all and toast to the death of 2014 and the birth of 2015. To the bitter and the sweet!

Jazz For Jesus

Photo by Josh Terry of Wounded Mosquito.Com

You know what I like about the Little Drummer Boy? Well, besides a departure from the tired story of a drummer's death by tour bus or pyrotechnics accident, I like that the only thing this cat had to offer to God was some sweet beats; he gave what he had and he did his best, and that was better than good enough for the Lord of Lords.

Once I dreamed I was standing in heaven next to the gods of jazz Chet Baker, Charlie Parker, and Bill Evans when Jesus walked by. I play sax but Bird (Charlie Parker) was already putting down so I picked up what was left, bass. We saw Jesus coming and we set in and got serious so that as Jesus walked by we were playing our hearts out, we were swinging for the cat of cats, J.C., and I'm not talking John Coltrane (even though he is considered a saint – he even has a church devoted to nothing but him) but the one and only J.C. These gods of jazz and me, subbing on bass, were playing our hearts out. And it was enough, enough to honor God.

Something my teacher taught me years ago was that if you take one step toward Spirit, Spirit takes a thousand steps toward you. All these years I've sought to understand that but I think that the Little Drummer Boy sums it up perfectly. When we show up to practice, we offer whatever we've got: quantity doesn't matter, flexibility doesn't matter, strength doesn't matter. What matters is that you offer what you've got. Anything else, more or less, would be an inappropriate offering. I believe that God comes in many forms, and what does God care if your offering comes in the form of Downward Facing Dog or Cobra Pose, or a swinging jazz lick? Show up and give it your best. Write off the rest.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone.

What We Need Is Here

We are born as perfect beings who are nothing but awareness of the world around us. As newborns we come out, look around, see our own hand and think, “What the hell is that thing, and how does it relate to me?” As infants, we make no distinction between the world and ourselves. According to our infant mind, it’s all just me. It’s not until we are 6-9 months old that we start to individuate from the rest of the world. As we grow up, we naturally become more entrenched with the experience of being separate. We may spend our entire lives practicing how to get back to that place we knew when we were born. And after a lifetime of practice, if we do arrive back to that same awareness, we do so as the result of a lifetime of wisdom and experience, not from innocence or naiveté. It’s like a winding staircase; we end up facing the same direction but one degree higher, rising in our development toward our highest potential.

Yoga is one method that teaches us how to get back to our True Nature. Yoga is a process of re-membering, of yoking body, mind, spirit, and ourselves together as whole beings, united as one collective self. Through the process, we rediscover our True Nature, the way we knew the world as infants. I love the idea that what we are looking for is already within us. All we need to do is to remove the barnacles of false identity, the layers that prevent us from seeing our own True Nature. Imagine that we are like mummies, wrapped in dusty layers which prevent us from seeing our true form. These layers may represent being out of tune with our bodies, ignorance or misunderstanding (called avidya in Sanskrit), and a misdirected sense that we are separate from everything else. Perhaps we the form of our wrappings gives us the outline, a general sense of our true form, but let’s not mistake the wrappings for the being of light the lies beneath them. By practices like yoga and meditation, we start to remove the layers. Once in a while we might see all the way down, past the layers that obfuscate our true form. And even if we never get the wrappings all the way off, I don’t know that I will, we eventually get enough of an idea of what’s underneath them to understand our True Nature. When we gain that sort of insight about ourselves, we’ll begin to look around to others, as well as the whole world, and see that same light everywhere. With practice, we won’t even see the wrappings anymore. We’ll only see the magic being of light beneath.

This may seem like a lofty practice, right? It is. It may only take you your entire life to make a just little headway toward this understanding of your True Nature. But I would also wager that you have already had many experiences where you have glimpsed your radiant True Nature, that being of light that is you and the world around you. Maybe it was during a yoga class, perhaps while on the perfect trail run, or while making love. Or maybe it was when a child was born and you experienced that perfection of this little being as a naked witness to the world. Perhaps it reminded you of the same thing within yourself.

This week, I invite you to do those things that remove the layers that keep you from experiencing your own true nature. Come to yoga, spend an extra 10 minutes meditating, or maybe turn off the TV and just be with the person you love. Perhaps open your heart, means, and energy to those who need them and find how they too are also part of you. Discover that what you’re looking for already exists within you.

I’ll see you in yoga this week.

What We Need I Here

Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.

~Wendell Berry

Tune In Tokyo

The other day one of my students commented that whenever we chant OM it reminds her of an orchestra tuning up before a performance. This idea of chanting OM and tuning an orchestra struck a chord in me. It made me think that by chanting OM we tune up with ourselves, each other, and the entire universe. Truly this is the essence of yoga.

So, I gotta talk about the orchestra first. I’ve witness and performed in many orchestras and to hear or perform in a perfectly tuned orchestra creates a magical feeling. When aligned, an orchestra transforms from several individuals, sometimes more than 75 or 100 people, all with different instruments, into one immense voice. If just one instrument in that orchestra is even slightly out of tune, like some errant, patchouli-smelling, long-haired clarinet player, all that magic that comes from being aligned is lost. I’ve seen conductors turn purple, completely lose their shit, and almost have a coronary arrest over the smallest deviation in intonation. They should make a law that mandates defibrillators be stowed under conductors’ stands for such occurrences. I’m sure the conductor gets so bent because when the orchestra is perfectly in tune, the effect creates a feeling that is completely euphoric! Nothing feels more natural and beautiful and we want that feeling always. I believe that we all deeply desire to be in tune whether it’s tonally, philosophically, spiritually or any other way, and if you have ever experienced that magic, anything less than pure alignment becomes intolerable. Ready your defibrillators . . .CLEAR!

How do we get in tune in body, mind, and spirit? Yoga tunes us personally as well as tunes us with everything around us. Understanding how an orchestra tunes might give us some insight into how we tune using our yoga practice. For an orchestra to get in tune, most often the lead violinist will stand and play a single note, an A, and everyone else in the orchestra will tune to that note as the standard. Sorry for getting a tad technical here but that A can be verified by an electric tuner which measures a sound wave by its vibrations per second, a measurement called Hurtz (abbreviated as hz), named after a dude. Today, an A is measured as 440hz. I say “today” because A hasn’t always been A. What I mean is that A as 440hz is a frequency that was internationally agreed upon to be the “official” A as late as 1953. People have experimented (and still do) with several different tunings for A, but back in the day, I’m talkin’ in the heyday of Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach—those cats—A sounded a little different. It sounded just a tad lower. Back then, it was common that A was tuned to around 432hz. That may sound like splitting hairs but speaking of hair, hearing the contrast between A as 440hz and A as 432hz will make the hair stand up on your ears. That or make your orchestra conductor start to lather and have heart palpitations. And you can decide for yourself, but the A as 432hz sounds better.  It feels better.

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons why is because of PHI. A at 432hz is a product of PHI; A at 440hz isn’t. That and modern science confirms that the natural sound of the universe is A as 432hz. I even heard it on NPR not too long ago. For millennia yogis have been saying that OM is the sound of everything in the universe. This assertion was both philosophical and scientific and yogis weren’t alone. Even if they weren’t chanting OM, scientists, mathematicians, and artists like Kepler, Pythagoras, Galileo, and Davinci, all understood PHI, the underlying math magic that makes A as 432hz so harmonizing with the universe. PHI is known as the Golden Mean, the naturally occurring number represented ubiquitously in nature, 1.6180339887. .  . . PHI is a number that creates a ratio seen in everything from the movement of galaxies, to the human form, the Fibonacci Sequence, light waves, time, our DNA, and sound waves, to name a just a few. People have been studying and using PHI for thousands of years. Ancient buildings were designed and constructed often using PHI.

Philosophically, yogis say that OM means the sound of everything together. It was described to me by a Sanskrit scholar that the word OM is the combination of the first of the Sanskrit vowels, O, and the last of the Sanskrit consonants, M. Therefore, these two act like bookends that hold between them everything that could be said in that language. According to yogis, OM is everything. By chanting OM we become like an orchestra, all different members aligning not only with one another as we practice yoga but together as we chant OM, we also align with the world and entire universe in adding our voice to all that is. If we get technical, we can even align ourselves with what scientists call the vibrational frequency of the universe and literally tune in with the universe. What is yoga other than understanding and aligning ourselves as an important member of this vast and beautiful universe? Om is about belonging. It’s OM sweet OM.

So, I invite you to come and tune your vibration of body, mind, and heart as we practice yoga, chanting, and meditation. Like the violinist of an orchestra, I’ll help show you the standard and we will all tune up, becoming one larger organism. We’ll start by chanting the word OM and bring ourselves into alignment with each other and with all things. As we practice, we will feel the effortless effects of working in harmony with the universe instead of against it. And just like when everything is in tune, the feeling will be pure magic.

Oh, and we’ll totally geek out and chant at A as 432hz to be in harmony with the universe. In fact, we’ll practice to a beautiful soundtrack that was recorded using this tuning for the purpose of creating a feeling of ease and flow. I’ve been listening to it as I write this and I can feel a difference. Come to practice and experiment for yourself to see if you feel it too.

“If one should desire to know whether a kingdom is well governed, if its morals are good or bad, the quality of its music will furnish the answer.” -Confucius

 “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”

-Nikola Tesla

If you want to geek out on the power of sound waves, check out this video to see the beautiful things that sound waves do at different frequencies.

One Small Step

I have a good friend who started yoga about two years ago. He was naturally skeptical about all the spiritual mumbo-jumbo he associated with yoga but as a body worker, he felt he needed to do something gentle to help heal his own overworked body. So he started to practice yoga, or yogurt as he called it—he refused to even take the name very seriously. And two years later, he’s still doing it because as for many of us, he sees the monumental benefits that come from the small steps of a regular practice.

At first, my friend would scoff at some of the more intense poses like arm balances and the like. Regardless, my friend continued to come to practice and continued to give these challenging poses his best shot because he understood that it’s not the poses that we are trying to achieve, but rather the principles that underlie those poses, principles like not taking yourself so seriously, and ones like even if you think a pose is impossible, show up and give it your best shot anyway. Maybe he has stuck with yoga because these are some of the same principles that he felt he could apply to the practice of living life.

A few weeks ago while I was teaching a challenging pose in class, I looked over and guess who was rocking that pose? It was my skeptical yoga friend who rarely misses my Monday and Friday night classes. As we were enjoying a friends Thanksgiving this past week, my friend was talking to me about his yoga practice. He said in effect, “I have been coming regularly to class for almost two years and have enjoyed taking these small steps, not really even noticing my own growth. Then one day I look at myself and I’m doing a pose that I thought would have been completely impossible when I started doing yoga.” That challenging pose isn’t the point. What’s important is the many small steps that we are making in this moment. The challenging pose is just an interesting mile marker along our path to self-discovery.

The lesson of one small step is a grand lesson for me. Whether in our regular yoga practice or our daily eating habits or regular spiritual practice, it’s the small, daily steps that are the individual bricks that in time build the grand temple. There are truths that can ONLY be learned by regular practice over time. Even if someone told you the answer you would not appreciate nor understand it.  You need those small, daily steps.

What is the small step that you can make today? I invite you to commit to some small step that you can make every day or every week that you know will build you into the person you want to become.

I hope to see you in class.

Grab Kleenex and Cary On

Here it is. It’s the week of Thanksgiving. The yoga teaching around Thanksgiving comes through the Sanskrit teaching in the Yoga Sutras called Santosha which means contentment or gratitude. I love this time of year because it focuses me on the healing power of gratitude. Every morning I have a ritual of doing some breathing exercises then thinking of as many things as I can for which I’m grateful. It’s such an amazing way to start the day! Another way of putting language to gratitude is to list everything that I love. I often use “I’m grateful” or “I love” to really mean the same thing. This is the message that often gets raw and dribbly.

So, with Kleenex in hand . . . deep breath . . .

I have found the LOVE OF MY LIFE and had the deep pleasure of marrying her this summer. I love, love, love, her and the life that we are forming together. I love her for her beauty, smarts, humor, and the fact that she can see and celebrate the best parts of me. I want to step up as a man and a human being to honor her incredible capacity. I love the life we are creating together and can’t wait to be by her side for the next 80 years. I love you, Seneca. Love is the best!

I love yoga. It’s so provocative in a way that sort of slaps me up-side the head and makes me pay attention, in the way that only a really good friend can do. I have revelation after revelation due to this practice and I suppose that’s why I keep writing about it and teaching it. I love to teach yoga. Wow, who knew that this stressed out high school band geek (band president, even) would be the one standing out in front of people and reminding them to breathe and understand themselves. Yoga found me and I’m so grateful for everything that yoga has taught me about myself and the world. I’m thrilled to be able to work in a career where I get to connect with people and touch their lives as they touch mine.

I’m grateful for my body. It’s healthy and strong and brings me enormous joy.

I’m grateful for running. I’m here to tell you, there is nothing better than a good solid trail run with a couple of hours to burn, a whole heap of pod casts cued up on the ole iPod, and a ProBar and a couple of water bottles strapped to me. I truly feel exhilarated when I run, almost like I’m flying.

I love sitting around the table with tight friends sharing a meal and laughing or crying between bites as simmer in the soup of rich friendship.

I love to play my saxophone. Every first Friday of the month I play with my jazz group, Jazz Brulee at the Bayou. It’s so much fun throwin’ down with those cats. I had a moment this year that I’ll never forget. I was up on stage at the Canyons Amphitheatre with my rockin’ R&B band, The Soulistics, in front around 6 thousand people and it came time for my solo. In this song (Rock Steady by Aretha) the entire band builds and builds and finally cuts out in order to for me to start my solo. Alone, I began with this sexy, loud, high, high, high note that I didn’t think I would ever be able to land in my life while I was a high school band geek, let alone with such clarity and power. Then I ripped out a great solo that morphed into a group imropv session with the horn section. Damn, that was incredible! I’m grateful for such thrilling opportunities.

I’m so grateful for my teachers: yoga teachers, music teachers, and life teachers. I expect to always be learning my whole life long. I’m so grateful for those who are willing to help show me the way.

I have a wonderful family. My family has been such a great support to me over the years. I have an incredible twin brother, awesome sisters, and great parents. I also have a brand-new family that I adopted when I married Seneca. They are as good to me as my own family. Thank you. I have a great step son and I’m grateful for the opportunity I had recently to teach him how to drive a stick in my rickety truck. I’ve been waiting for decades to be able to do that! He’s good and everything he does so it was no surprise that he picked this up right away and is itching to now drive off across town to visit his girlfriend. I’m grateful for that step-dad/step-son moment.

I’m grateful for A-lister friends. You’re reading this, I know, and I tear up thinking about how you show up for me time and time and time again. Thank you for looking into my eyes with love and tenderness as I blather about how parts of my life are burning down. Thank you for laughing with me when my life is more absurd than fiction. Thank you for celebrating with me when my life is ecstatic. And thanks for allowing me to do the same. Even if I don’t see you every day, you hold a special place in my heart and I know that I’m kickin’ around in yours too. I love you! And if you are wondering if you’re an A-lister, you are.

I’m so grateful for the opportunities to grow and learn and optimize everything that I have been given. I believe that some have the gift and others just have tenacity to learn it through brute effort. I feel like I’m of the latter sort. Some of those lessons are really hard but in the end I’m grateful that I get to pick myself up, brush myself off, and take another go at it. I’m grateful for the opportunity to grow and still be picking myself up.

I’m grateful to be working at Centered City. I’m grateful that after Prana closed, I still get to do the thing I love most which is to teach yoga. I’m grateful for the warm welcome I received when I came back, even though I left CCY to open Prana. I’m grateful for everyone who comes to my classes. I’m grateful for the wonderful friends and teachers who are there.

I’m grateful that I have a truck that takes me around where I need to go; this old bucket of rust that starts almost every time I want it too (almost, cuz she likes to keep me appreciative). I’m even more grateful after having had my truck STOLEN this year then getting it back, but not before wonderful friends, Christy and Brian, sold me their awesome Forester (now named Sherm) for a steal. After some minor repairs she runs better now than she has in years. So now Sennie and I have two cars that both run and didn’t cost us a limb. I’m so grateful for all of your concern and well-wishes during that whole drama. People I don’t even know will stop me in the store and tell me that they are happy I got my car back. Incredible. You people are amazing!

I’m grateful for healthy and delicious food to eat, clean water to drink, air to breathe, and a nice warm shower. I’m grateful for a cozy bed. I’m grateful for a wonderful little house I get to share with Sennie and Liam, my step-son, a really wonderful young man.

I’m so damn grateful to YOU! Seriously. You opened up this newsletter or strolled over to my blog to read this. And you’re STILL reading. I’m so touched by your support and encouragement to find my purpose on this amazing earth and go for it and put myself out there. I do because you do. I love to see you in class and at my retreats. I love to read your emails and hear your stories. I really want to share all of the incredible things you share with me with others. Your stories and words of wisdom are so poignant that I want you to share them. Please, please, please, go comment on my blog below and share a few things that you are grateful for.

Do it! Make a list of your own. Grab a box of Kleenex and then share it with those people to whom you are the most grateful . . . and some strangers too! Notice for yourself how healing gratitude is. Notice how much those lesser things just don’t matter as much after you do so.

 Comment below!

Learning To Practice

A reporter once asked a successful banking executive, “What has been the key to your success?” The exec responded, “Two words.” The reporter asked, “What are those two words?” “Good decisions,” said the exec. “How did you learn to make those good decisions?” asked the reporter. “One word,” said the exec. The reporter asked, “What is that one word?” “Experience,” said the exec.” “And how did you gain experience?” asked the reporter. “Two Words.” “Which are?” asked the reporter. “Bad decisions,” said the exec decisively.

The secret to his success was the tutelage of his mistakes. It took the practice of making wrong decisions in order to learn how to make right ones. This idea of practice is the most fundamental directive in all of yoga. There is no yoga performance. There is no yoga perfection. There is only practice. Like one wise teacher told me: “There is no correct or incorrect way to do yoga. There is only more or less skillful as you learn and experience along the way.”

Many of us are so afraid to fail, to make mistakes, that we never even begin the journey. We don’t dare to dream. Before we can ever learn from the experience, we pre-empt our growth and ensure our failure by refusing to ever get off the couch. At least that way, we justify, our failure won’t be so public. The point is that there is no failure. There is only this opportunity to grow and learn. I hated yoga at first because I felt it only showed me all the places where I was weak. As I continued to practice, those weaknesses became strengths. Then I found NEW weaknesses. And the cycle continues, but now I get it. That’s the point. There will always be somewhere new to journey, new lessons to learn and there will always be a trail leading back to the miles of lessons I’ve just learned.

More than four years ago, I took a big risk to leave security and comfort and join some partners for the chance to build a business, Prana Yoga, which eventually became two yoga studios. We did it! We all did together and I can’t even begin to express the challenges we all experienced while we watched that thing grow. I earned a Ph.D. from the School of Hard Knocks by owning that business, I tell you what. Those business were incredible successes, despite the fact that they both closed this year. One thing I learned is that there are several levels of success. I’m still growing and learning from that business as I continue put out the fires. Now, I see the equation: Risk+worry+work+growth=invaluable experience. I can’t promise that I’ll open another yoga studio, but I know that going forward I will make increasingly smarter decisions. I can promise you two things. First, I promise that I have yet many more mistakes waiting for me, some of them are probably big ones. Second, I promise that by learning from my mistakes, it will take larger and larger demons to pull me down. There is an extremely redemptive poem by Rilke called The Man Watching, where in the last few lines he says:

Winning does not tempt that man. 
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively, 
by constantly greater beings.

And when ever I catch myself feeling like life’s beating me down, I remember the soreness in my muscles is due to the fact that they are becoming stronger as I practice wrestling with the challenges of life.

This week I invite you to enjoy the notion of practice. This is all just practice. I invite you to remember your big dreams. There’s no such thing as crazy, except for staying on the couch. Come on! What are you afraid to do? You all have homework: on the comments section of my blog, please write what you would do if you had no fear that you would fail. You can be anonymous or sign it, but write it down. Read what other people would do and see how brilliant people are. Who’s going to be the first brave person to write? Will it be you?

See you at practice.

Yoga Emergency!

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It's a few years back. I'm traveling home from Lander, Wyoming after a weekend of teaching some fantastic workshops. I’m riding with my friend Tam and we’re traveling over the pass toward Rock Springs when we hit a full-assault blizzard with 65 mph winds which trying its best to blow us off the road. We decide to call this stretch 32 miles of hell, especially after we saw the trailer that had just flipped. White knuckled at the wheel, Tam tries to calm her nerves by singing along to The Grateful Dead (irony isn't lost on me). She is breathing sighs of relief between choruses. After we reach the summit and start to head down the other side of the hill, the worst part is over and Tam turns outright giddy with relief.  

Whether it's a tricky spot in winter driving or something else in life, sooner or later we are bound to run into a tricky sitch. When these inevitable crises do occur, what do you have in your yoga first-aid kit? Here are a few suggestions of things you might want to have as a quick go-to that could help in tricky times to keep you going in the clutch moments when you've got to be on or when life's throws you a curve.

First, off: presence. Open your eyes. Times like this make you wake up from that anesthetized state. There is no cruise control, here. If you've practiced presence in meditation or yoga, it will be easier to really be on when you need to be. If not, no time like the present (I have a pun permit, so back off). Notice what's going on around you. Even when things are really tough, notice what's going on in your body. Take a moment, close your eyes (unless you're driving through a blizzard) and allow yourself to actually feel all of your body's sensation, all your emotions, thoughts, etc. without the need to change it. It's always surprising to me how readily this practice of seeing things objectively, even for a brief moment, helps me develop a clearer perspective of my problems.

Second: breathe! Ujjaiyi breath, the whisper breath we practice in yoga, is done by breathing in and out through the nostrils and slightly constricting the breath in the throat to feel and hear a whisper. It is one of the most effective things I know to lower anxiety levels and oxygenate the body to perform optimally. If you want to watch a video on YouTube of the one and only Matt Newman at the old Prana Yoga space demonstrating this technique, click here.

Third: do grounding poses like forward folds and seated or lying-down twists. They ground the nervous system and reduce tension from the body. Any poses that reduce muscular tension (stretches) are great to reduce stress and make you feel good. Remember body and mind are connected, so release tension from your muscles and watch how tension leaves from other parts too. Stretchy poses send endorphins running through your body and give you a mega-dose of Feel Good when life is crazy.

Fourth: take care of yourself. Even if you feel like you don't have time for anything superfluous, keeping yourself emotionally, mentally, and physically well is not superfluous. Too much relies on you being on and therefore you must keep your body/mind/spirit happy. This might mean taking the morning off and strolling through Red Butte Gardens or take a jaunt into Hatch Family Chocolates (8th Ave between D and E St.) for a Peanut Butter Truffle. Eat well with simple and nourishing meals (with occasional chocolate). Get enough sleep. Especially in times of crisis, do something for yourself to replenish the source so you have something to give back to everything that needs you. Otherwise, others will have to take care of you. Do it for yourself.

Fifth: simplify. Kindly say no to that extra social engagement. Stop trying to be perfect. Minimize and simplify. 

Sixth: if you ever need a yoga 911, go to my web site and click on the yoga nidra tab. You can listen immediately to a recording of a guided mediation that will calm you down and give you some clarity to help you go on through your day with grounded clarity. 

Finally, The House Martins help. If you don't know this band, check them out here. When I feel like life has slapped me down, this band has always helped me get back up. M-m. Love that band. 

 What is in your yoga first-aid kit? Please comment here and add let us know what you do in a yoga emergency. See what others are saying.

 Take care of yourself!

Woo-Hoo! Can I get a witness?!

Welcome to Scott Moore Yoga!

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Friends!   I!   Am!   So!   Excited!

This website represents a new chapter in my teaching, in my career, in my life.Friends, I'm looking forward into my own future and I gotta tell ya, it's lookin' goooood!

 I've grown immensely in these last few years. Phew! I've learned volumes about myself, about yoga, about business, about people, about how incredible y’all are, and how good and beautiful this world is.  

 Instead of pencil marks on the kitchen wall, my growth is being measured in part with my brand new website. There is so much I want to offer and this site is now a hub for all of it. On my site you can stay up to date with regular offerings on my blog. You can sign up for my newsletter. You’ll see info about retreats that I'm thrilled to be offering, including day-retreats at Snowbird, a yoga retreat with Kim Dastrup in Spain, and other exciting retreats that are in the planning stages. You can see my different offerings from private sessions, private group sessions, Girls’ Night Out sessions, etc. I'm also ecstatic to be offering a Teacher Mentoring section on my blog. I'm always growing and learning both as a practitioner and as a teacher. I'm passionate about learning to teach well and would love to engage other teachers in doing likewise.  

 In the near future, I will be traveling to teach more and I’ll be posting about that and listing those places and dates. You'll soon have a plethora of audio and video offerings on the web, too. And I continue to be committed to teaching awesome public, local classes at Centered City Yoga . Please join me.  

 Welcome and stay tuned, friends. Thank you for all your support and love currently and over the years. It's been a wild and fun ride and I'm happy to have had you with me at my side.  

 I invite you to go to my site and take a cyber stroll. It's not perfect or complete but it's there. Stay tuned as things evolve!